Make Your Own Seed Tape

How many times have you sowed a handful of teeny tiny seeds — onions and carrots, for instance, or even worse, those little specks called basil! — and wished you had a magnifying glass? Or sowed a row of teeny tiny seeds, only to end up thinning out over half the seedlings?

But it’s not just a matter of going cross-eyed when seed-sowing time comes around. Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate, and the wind decides to pick up as you flick down a fingerful of seeds. Sometimes all you want is a couple of seeds as you gently shake out the packet, and a whole year’s worth pours out (kinda like getting that last sip of iced tea in your glass, and you end up with a face full of ice). I’ve been there.

But now I have seed tape.

Seed tape — basically a strip of paper with seeds embedded for precision planting — is sold at many nurseries, but you likely aren’t going to find seed tape in the variety you want. It’s also expensive for what it is, especially since I’m all about affordable DIY. You can make your own seed tape at home with nothing more than toilet paper and school glue!

First, find a cheap roll of one-ply toilet paper. You can also use two-ply and just split the toilet paper apart. Roll out a length to fit your garden bed. I usually don’t work with anything longer than 4 feet, just because it’s easier to manage several shorter lengths of seed tape than one extra long tape.

Using a washable, non-toxic glue (like Elmer’s), place small dots of glue on the toilet paper according to how far apart you want your seeds spaced. For most plantings, 1 to 3 inches is a good start as some seeds may not germinate.

I like to stagger my plantings, so I placed glue in a zig-zag pattern down the length of paper.

Now, using your fingers or tweezers, drop a seed onto each dot of glue.

You may be asking how this is different from simply going outside and dropping a seed into the ground. Why take the extra step of making seed tape?

The advantage is that you don’t have to deal with the elements, especially when you want to conserve your seeds. You can control the exact spacing of your seeds now, and figure out if you need more seeds. Since tiny seeds barely need to be covered, the paper makes it simple to see how much soil you’re adding on top. You can make and save several varieties of seed tape to sow throughout the year, quickly and easily. It’s also a good rainy day project when you can’t work outside in the garden… as soon as the sun comes out, you’ll be ready to sow!

Once you’ve glued on all your seeds, allow ample time for the glue to dry and make sure the seed tape is not sticking to your surface.

If you’re gluing in a single straight row, you can glue your seeds to the bottom half of the paper, and fold the top half over to secure them while the glue dries. This keeps things neater and your seeds will still be able to sprout through the paper.

When those little glue dots have hardened, roll up your seed tape and stash it in an envelope or zip-top bag until you’re ready to use. Be sure to label your seed tape!

At planting time, simply water your soil and smooth the surface. Unroll your seed tape, set it on top of the soil, and lightly cover with more soil. It’s okay if the toilet paper shows through a bit; it will quickly disintegrate and decompose in the ground.

As with all teeny tiny seeds sown by seed tape or even the traditional way, gently mist the soil until the seeds have sprouted and established firm roots; you don’t want a strong blast of water to displace your meticulous work. Within a week you should see perfectly spaced rows of little seedlings coming up!

I’ve started with seed tape this year and tend to mix seeds on the same tape.

Radish helps identify the row, before other seeds with long germination times (eg parsnip) are still not showing.

I also mix carrot and spring onion seeds. the onion smell prevents carrot fly smelling the carrots …. and the carrots prevent the onion fly smelling the onion.

No doubt other combinations would work too.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/ Linda Ly

Mixing the seeds is a great idea! You could also interplant your vegetables with beneficial flowers like marigolds and yarrow.

Devonviolet

Hi Betty,
Thank you for this excellent idea! I have been gardening for 45 years, and am no longer able to kneel on the ground, to plant my veggie seeds. We will be renting a 20X20 foot community garden plot this year, so that means a LOT of seeds. Being able to plant seed tape, will make that much easier. My husband and I are taking it one step further. I have been making 1″ wide strips of single layer TP and planting those in planting trays that a filled with dirt, to get a head start on some of the cool weather plants.
We have made a seed starting rack with five shelves and a grow light hanging from each shelf. We can put the trays under grow lights and will have healthy seedlings, as soon as we have our last frost.
I have MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity), and can’t tolerate the chemicals in the glue, so made my own glue by cooking down 1/2 cup of sugar, in 1/2 cup water, to make a syrup. Then, I added 1/2 cup. flour to 1-1/4 cup water, in a pan on the stove, and heated until thickened. I then combined the sugar syrup and flour mixture and put in a squeeze bottle. I have been putting the seeds 1″ apart and laying them out to dry. By the time it is time to transplant into the garden, I can plant the seedlings the correct planting distance.
We planted our first seed tape (Spanish Onions) the other day. I pressed the dirt, in the row, about 1/4″ deep and laid the seed tape in the depression. We sprayed the seed tape with water, and were pleased to see it mold to the dirt. We then covered with 1/4″ seed starting mix (per your recommendation) and watered well. We got five rows in the planting tray, with 20 in each row (for 100 onion sets), and are looking forward to our seeds coming up in 10-14 days.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/ Linda Ly

I always use seed tape outside, but great idea to use it for your indoor seed starting trays too!

Gisele

I am doing seed tapes this year for two reasons: 1. I have a bad back. This I can do at my kitchen table, and the planting part is much quicker, so I’m hoping it helps. 2. I always seem to be short on time in planting season due to our really short growing season, so I make the seed tape in the winter, plant quickly in the spring.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/ Linda Ly

Both excellent reasons!

http://twitter.com/DollarSeed David Moffitt

I’ll bet this would also help us dwellers with inner city squirrels who like to move everything around right after it gets planted. Will give this one a shot to see.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/ Linda Ly

I sometimes have that problem too! Squirrels are not my friends in the garden.

Nina

Genius!

http://twitter.com/homewithcarol Carol J. Alexander

Incredible!

carter

I need this! I just had rows of radishes (spaced “1/2 inch apart”) come up in rows that were alllllll over the place. I am going to be eating LOTS of radish thinnings, sadly.

http://www.gardenbetty.com/ Linda Ly

1/2-inch spacing?! I’d go blind!

Parsnip Love

I am not an all-caps person but this is ONE OF THE MOST CLEVER things I have ever seen. I am the queen of dropping teeny tiny seeds in beds I don’t mean them to be in and only realizing it when a tower of lettuce bolts out of no where in July. I am trying this this weekend!!!! Thank you!

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Hi! I’m Linda and I’m the Garden Betty. I like to grow my own food and celebrate life around good meals. I love to turn weekend getaways into week-long road trips and spend my days in the sun, sand or surf. Read more